MARvellous, Indeed!

O what a feeling it is when you reach office and your English colleague greets you for the success of India’s Mars Mission, MOM. Though, this greeting also comes in with a pinch of sarcasm of ‘Welcome to the league’ but then it’s all the more fun to correct the ever so boastful  Englishman with some real facts like -  we did it in one go and at one tenth of the priceJ. To which the Englishmen replied, though I find the ‘doing it in one go’ part as really surprising one but I am least surprised with the pricing part. You guys are ever so economical, be it IT, be it your lifestyle or then be it your space ventures. Rightly so indeedJ!

This feat is truly a remarkable one and easily the most memorable one of the year. It stands way ahead of the historic mandate that people of this nation gave through the recently concluded general assembly polls, much more significant than India’s Cricket World Cup win few years back and surely far more relevant than other individual feats that we have achieved in the recent past. What makes this mission standout is the fact that it showcases the length and breadth of our service spectrum, on one end we are working hand in hand with other developing nations on elementary issues like education, sanitation and building basic infrastructure for the masses and on the other hand we are clocking new research based milestones in the league of the most developed nations, in fact in this case in a much better fashion.

And the most staggering aspect of this success story is the cost at which we have successfully accomplished it, just about $70 million. One tenth of what US took to do it, much lesser than the Hollywood sci-fi flick ‘Gravity’, a fraction of what we invested in building the 1^st metro track in Mumbai and loads of similar analogies to emphasis on this unimaginable feat. It’s truly unbelievable how our scientists at ISRO have managed to strike a unique combination of a best in class, cost effective and an efficient space program.

But then the credentials of our scientists were never in doubt. Although, the celebratory images of the saree clad scientists at ISRO can be a bit misleading but then it just speaks volumes of our strong ethos, diversity and massive talent base. We have been the pioneers of many space related launches and missions in the last few decades and our prowess in this field is recognized globally. A lot of it goes to the strong technical education framework we have in India. Kudos to our great technical institutes (not just the IITs and the NITs) but even to our rich base of faculties who have contributed immensely towards India’s bright fortunes in this space.

 Undoubtedly, it’s a moment to rejoice and celebrate this exemplary display of technical prowess by our esteemed scientists at ISRO. Though, any amount of praise would be insufficient to do justice to this tremendous feat. May be we can just take some inspiration out of this MARvellous achievement, feel proud about it and celebrate it as we do for any cricketing or Bollywood moment of joy.

 --

kin…